Almost unanimously, our classmates where receptive to the Bright Futures or “Bright Futures: A Framework of Twelve Core Practices for Maine Middle Grade Schools Developing Full Academic, Personal and Social Potential for Maine Young Adolescents” twelve core principles. The principles split into two categories, Learning and Teaching Practices in Maine’s Middle Level Schools and School Practices to Support in Maine’s Middle Level Schools were accepted educational standards that our fellow classmates felt particularly highlighted the benefits of communal, technological, and student-centered applications of these standards. Due to our recent explorations of educational philosophies, we were quick to recognize Bright Future's pragmatist leanings in these core focuses.
Bright Futures also extended beyond the classroom in many ways. Rather than education that is grounded in knowledge foundations, education needed to be grounded in developmental awareness about middle grades. This includes the entire development of the student—scholastic and social. This guiding centrism brought in the importance of community and ownership, extra-curricular activities, and cross-collaborative work in the classrooms. Many of us acknowledged the benefit and importance of school community, but didn’t take time to address what communal education would really look like in a classroom.
That being said, our classmates were not willing to accept all of Bright Futures as the only viable approach. Classmates expressed concerns over funding especially in relation to the importance of technology. Our classmates also disagreed with the idea that communities and the “middle school model” was not the only appropriate answer for this particular age group. Furthermore, classmates were anxious to point out how restricting the demands were toward diverse educational philosophy by focusing so much on pragmatic models .
Bright Futures has the promise of a bright future for middle levels that focuses on the student in moment of development for the future benefit, rather than stressing the future forgetting the child.
Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Bright Futures The components of this curriculum are not in-and-of-themselves radical, the fact that they are all together in the same school is very unique. It’s a total dismantling of the prior system: a true total overhaul, and there’s no doubt about it’s effective.
The content has been totally revamped at the school. While it still meets the standards in the Maine Learning Results, the teachers here have taken advantage of the fact that their assigned content areas are HUGE (It can be easy to forget that essentially all of them are), they can allow wide student choice.
The teachers here are very aware that the age-group of middle school have attention spans even shorter than children at other ages (although, if you aren’t versed in the language of these sort of education reports or teacher-speak, you’d miss it). They also know that kids at that age are particularly energetic, and so getting participation is not really a problem. So the classroom is designed with an interchange of activities which are highly structured and kinesthetic and looser ones that encourage creativity. In other words, the teacher spends less time lecturing and more time crafting lesson plans and assessing student work.
The other major change is the overall structure of the school leadership. The principal is typically the equivalent of a “foreman” or “Warden”, factories and prisons being the models that American schools are made in the image of, and have equivalent authority. Instead, here have teachers, students, and parents being given a lot more power over what goes on, and the results are a lot less friction and miscommunication between the different groups. The more democratic and responsive process smooths out conflicts.
Tyler Oren
Bright futures certainly has all the makings of a forward thinking twenty first century teaching philosophy. The plan seeks to eliminate the traditional teacher centered mode of instruction through a processes the plan calls “Phasing out”, and replaces the old philosophy with a pragmatic model that fosters a positive learning community where student’s direct their own learning. Bright Futures also aims to integrate technology as fully as possible into every aspect of the curriculum, and eliminate the possibility of anything less than a one-to-one computer program at the school.
A large aspect that compoundsupon the creation of a positive learning community is the reimagining of co-curricular offerings that schools possess today. Bright Futures hopes to make these activities far more inclusive, and supporting of students by ensuring that coaches and activity leaders are fully versed in adolescent development.
Bright Futures vision is that teachers and parents become more active and reflective of the teaching process, calling teachers to reflect on their own development to help themselves as educators, but to also reflect on the unique and diverse educational needs of their students, and to learn to appreciate these differences in a way that enhances the classroom.
Bright futures is certainly an ambitious program, and has the potential to make some lasting improvements in the public education environment, however the difficulty of implementing such sweeping reforms cannot be understated. Thankfully Bright Futures offers two distinct goals to be implemented immediately to smooth integration. They suggest that organizations supporting the middle level of education form into consortiums which can in turn spearhead these reforms, and to secondly find funds to implement these changes.
__
Jenn Chick
Overall, I felt that this article had a lot of really good ideas. I loved the emphasis on community, I loved that the ultimate goal was to individualize learning and help foster a better mental state in young adolescents. Mostly, what I appreciated about this article was that it talked about keeping everyone on the same page. There was a great deal of importance placed on the difference between middle schools and other schools, and this article stressed that teachers, administration and other staff should be especially trained to dealing with this age group, because their needs are unique. I think really understanding the research and psychology behind this age and how to handle it in a school setting is just smart, and I liked how because of this article's plea to have everyone go through the same training and certification, it is more likely everyone would be willing and able to work together to create an ideal environment.
However, there were a couple of things that I didn't agree with, and I think some of it is because I am not a middle level educator, I am a secondary one. I believe that it is our job to prep these students with life skills, and as a middle school teacher, I would put an emphasis on getting students ready for high school. In that way, I lean toward the idea that middle schools should be a smaller, but more concrete version of high school, with more supports, and likely less freedoms. Perhaps this is why I truly struggled with the idea that students would be kept in communities for two to three years. While I see the benefit of fostering relationships, I see the disadvantages as I work with middle school students and freshman transitioning into a high school setting. They seem sheltered, they are socially disconnected to many of the people they shared a school with, they are less receptive to change, and they face high school with a feeling that they are lacking support.
I guess my real concern is, if the school is so focused on having all of the staff working together, and having it connect to the community, then it only makes sense to have the students intermingling to the fullest extent to foster relationships with people outside their 'chosen' circles and to bring in the real concept and connections of a school-wide community. ___
Christina L Quach
Bright Futures is a framework for middle schools that focuses on 12 main principles to ensure that students are reaching their true potential socially, academically, and emotionally. This framework is very useful in the middle schools because the students are at an age where they are physically and emotionally changing. This framework respects and understands those changes and helps to set up a safe environment for learning. The 12 core practices focus on improving all members of the school with the focus on the students.
To me the framework seems like common sense. I would like to hope that middle schools would not have to be told to function like the ones represented in Bright Futures, but I know that is not the case. Money might be a problem, but the schools can receive funding for implementing the framework. There was also a small mention of the importance of getting the whole community’s support for implementing the framework within the schools. With or without funding, I think there are a lot of pieces of the core practices that can be implemented without more money. A lot of it is a way of thinking, questioning, communication, and collaboration. Schools should already be doing that because all of those are important in helping students develop emotionally and academically. The framework brings together teachers, principals, students, community members, and parents. Shouldn’t the schools be doing that already whether or not they are following the framework? I think this framework should be a part of all schools with or without the title.
Johnny Buys
In 2009 the Report of the Maine Commission on Middle Level Education “Bright Futures: A Framework of Twelve Core Practices for Maine Middle Grade Schools Developing Full Academic, Personal and Social Potential for Maine Young Adolescents” encouraged a pragmatic approach to education infused with developing twenty-first century technology skills through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. The twelve core practices were broken into two categories: Learning and Teaching Practices in Maine’s Middle Level Schools and School Practices to Support in Maine’s Middle Level Schools.
The initial difficulty of this commission and report was the definition of Middle Level Schools. Age ranges that included 5-8, 6-8, and 7-8 all exist as “middle level schools” within Maine. The commission was uncensored in favoring the “middle school” approach as opposed to the “junior high” model. The pragmatic inclination of the middle school model focusing on personal learning communities and relevant technology literacy dominates the report.
Interestingly, the twelve core practices are introduced in four processes. These include a rational explaining the reasoning and meaning of the core practice, the essential elements detailing what features are needed, a snapshot which provides an example of the core practice in school, and the phase out which defines which practices middle level schools should get rid of in order to better meet the core practice.
While it is easy for me to accept the practices validity as a state commission and even be receptive to them as they are undoubtedly the bias of my University training, the combination of this commission report and my studying of education philosophies leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As a class, we have a variety of philosophical perspectives. I believe that every educational philosophy holds the opportunity to benefit some. Teachers have the right to exercise their right as a professional in correlation with their developed experience and belief. While I am pleased to accept the commission’s guiding principles, I have a problem with the commission’s seeming pragmatist slant that abandons the freedoms of schools and professionals to exercise their individual freedoms. While the commission is so anxious to propose respect for individual interest, responsibility, creativity and innovation, the commission is also very anxious put teachers and schools into specific philosophical leanings undermining exactly what they intend to promote.
Cheyenne
Bright Futures is a framework that contains twelve core practices. This framework is used in the middle grades throughout Maine and is used to promote full student growth potential not only academically, but on personal and social levels as well. I think the creation and implementation of this will completely redesign the classroom setting and engage learners beyond the “student aspect”. This positive type learning will engage all students in learning more than just fundamentals or “core knowledge”. This framework strengthens a teacher’s ability in embracing the differences among all students in the class, which I really like. This article stressed that it is key for all staff members, including teachers, administrators, etc. to be educated and trained in dealing with this age group since it is such a critically unique point in one’s life. I also feel that this is an important issue that needs to be stressed because middle school is a very unique time in a person’s life where they may first start feeling overwhelmed. In middle school you aren’t really a child anymore and you start taking on more responsibilities like a heavier homework load, more chores, and sports/extracurricular activities, yet you aren’t seen as “almost an adult”. Middle school is also the place where you sort of discover who you are, you are enter puberty and all that goes with it, you get into a specific circle of friends, and there is now an emphasis on what is cool and what isn’t, not to mention the heavy influence the media has on all of this.
With all of this being said,, I understand that this may seem overwhelming and appear to be a lot of work, but I still strongly agree with the promotion of this framework and what it is trying to accomplish. I think that sometimes core knowledge can be too heavily focused on leading students to not necessarily be prepared for the next grade level and eventually life on their own. Bright Futures does a great job by laying out two main goals, that organizational supports come together to promote this reform and finding funds to implement these changes. I think this is a very important movement that will prepare America’s future, period. We will create a future of people who are prepared for whatever society throws at them.
Mel Christensen
The “Bright Futures” document focuses on many ways that middle schools can alter practices to become stronger learning communities. One of the biggest goals in this middle school model is to ensure that students are connected to teacher, peers, and parents through their education and have strong relationships with all of these people based in education. Beyond the curriculum, students should be able to experience a variety of athletic, artistic, and social activities without exclusion or judgement. These extracurriculars give students insight into their interests and talents and allow them to start exploring career options. Service learning and project-based learning also allow students to expand the traditional curriculum and explore career options and understand their communities in new ways. All of these aspects of this middle school model foster the creation of “bright futures” for students transitioning into high school.
As a teacher, working in small teams with teacher from other disciplines is an exciting idea. This kind of collaboration enables project based and service learning to be planned and executed more easily. Students will be able to connect learning across classes and teachers can easily collaborate on ways to support students who may be struggling or need additional challenges. Professional development is very important to this model because it inspires new ideas and creativity to the faculty. Within an active and adaptable community it is important that all participants are bringing new energy and ideas to the table and are prepared to try new things to keep students engaged.
Kalib Moore
I felt that Bright Futures really emphasized progressing further into the 21st century. Expanding our knowledge on how to use technology and continually looking to include it in classrooms was a big part of Bright Futures core. I also noticed that it is putting teacher-centered and tradition teaching in the backseat for student-centered work. The 12 core practices create the framework of Bright Futures and creating strong social skills for middle level students is important. I felt that the snapshot examples of the practices in action were really useful in understanding how it will look in the classroom.
One of the most obvious problems I see with the framework working state-wide in middle schools is that it is going to be difficult to fund everything necessary to provide this to all students. The technology alone necessary to create these examples in Bright Futures would be hard to come by for all schools. Overall I saw a lot more positive in the framework than I saw negative. This field is always changing and progressing forward, so it is better to continue to work towards improvement than do nothing at all.
Synthesis of "Bright Futures"
Almost unanimously, our classmates where receptive to the Bright Futures or “Bright Futures: A Framework of Twelve Core Practices for Maine Middle Grade Schools Developing Full Academic, Personal and Social Potential for Maine Young Adolescents” twelve core principles. The principles split into two categories, Learning and Teaching Practices in Maine’s Middle Level Schools and School Practices to Support in Maine’s Middle Level Schools were accepted educational standards that our fellow classmates felt particularly highlighted the benefits of communal, technological, and student-centered applications of these standards. Due to our recent explorations of educational philosophies, we were quick to recognize Bright Future's pragmatist leanings in these core focuses.
Bright Futures also extended beyond the classroom in many ways. Rather than education that is grounded in knowledge foundations, education needed to be grounded in developmental awareness about middle grades. This includes the entire development of the student—scholastic and social. This guiding centrism brought in the importance of community and ownership, extra-curricular activities, and cross-collaborative work in the classrooms. Many of us acknowledged the benefit and importance of school community, but didn’t take time to address what communal education would really look like in a classroom.
That being said, our classmates were not willing to accept all of Bright Futures as the only viable approach. Classmates expressed concerns over funding especially in relation to the importance of technology. Our classmates also disagreed with the idea that communities and the “middle school model” was not the only appropriate answer for this particular age group. Furthermore, classmates were anxious to point out how restricting the demands were toward diverse educational philosophy by focusing so much on pragmatic models
.
Bright Futures has the promise of a bright future for middle levels that focuses on the student in moment of development for the future benefit, rather than stressing the future forgetting the child.
Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Bright FuturesThe components of this curriculum are not in-and-of-themselves radical, the fact that they are all together in the same school is very unique. It’s a total dismantling of the prior system: a true total overhaul, and there’s no doubt about it’s effective.
The content has been totally revamped at the school. While it still meets the standards in the Maine Learning Results, the teachers here have taken advantage of the fact that their assigned content areas are HUGE (It can be easy to forget that essentially all of them are), they can allow wide student choice.
The teachers here are very aware that the age-group of middle school have attention spans even shorter than children at other ages (although, if you aren’t versed in the language of these sort of education reports or teacher-speak, you’d miss it). They also know that kids at that age are particularly energetic, and so getting participation is not really a problem. So the classroom is designed with an interchange of activities which are highly structured and kinesthetic and looser ones that encourage creativity. In other words, the teacher spends less time lecturing and more time crafting lesson plans and assessing student work.
The other major change is the overall structure of the school leadership. The principal is typically the equivalent of a “foreman” or “Warden”, factories and prisons being the models that American schools are made in the image of, and have equivalent authority. Instead, here have teachers, students, and parents being given a lot more power over what goes on, and the results are a lot less friction and miscommunication between the different groups. The more democratic and responsive process smooths out conflicts.
Tyler Oren
Bright futures certainly has all the makings of a forward thinking twenty first century teaching philosophy. The plan seeks to eliminate the traditional teacher centered mode of instruction through a processes the plan calls “Phasing out”, and replaces the old philosophy with a pragmatic model that fosters a positive learning community where student’s direct their own learning. Bright Futures also aims to integrate technology as fully as possible into every aspect of the curriculum, and eliminate the possibility of anything less than a one-to-one computer program at the school.
A large aspect that compoundsupon the creation of a positive learning community is the reimagining of co-curricular offerings that schools possess today. Bright Futures hopes to make these activities far more inclusive, and supporting of students by ensuring that coaches and activity leaders are fully versed in adolescent development.
Bright Futures vision is that teachers and parents become more active and reflective of the teaching process, calling teachers to reflect on their own development to help themselves as educators, but to also reflect on the unique and diverse educational needs of their students, and to learn to appreciate these differences in a way that enhances the classroom.
Bright futures is certainly an ambitious program, and has the potential to make some lasting improvements in the public education environment, however the difficulty of implementing such sweeping reforms cannot be understated. Thankfully Bright Futures offers two distinct goals to be implemented immediately to smooth integration. They suggest that organizations supporting the middle level of education form into consortiums which can in turn spearhead these reforms, and to secondly find funds to implement these changes.
__
Jenn Chick
Overall, I felt that this article had a lot of really good ideas. I loved the emphasis on community, I loved that the ultimate goal was to individualize learning and help foster a better mental state in young adolescents. Mostly, what I appreciated about this article was that it talked about keeping everyone on the same page. There was a great deal of importance placed on the difference between middle schools and other schools, and this article stressed that teachers, administration and other staff should be especially trained to dealing with this age group, because their needs are unique. I think really understanding the research and psychology behind this age and how to handle it in a school setting is just smart, and I liked how because of this article's plea to have everyone go through the same training and certification, it is more likely everyone would be willing and able to work together to create an ideal environment.
However, there were a couple of things that I didn't agree with, and I think some of it is because I am not a middle level educator, I am a secondary one. I believe that it is our job to prep these students with life skills, and as a middle school teacher, I would put an emphasis on getting students ready for high school. In that way, I lean toward the idea that middle schools should be a smaller, but more concrete version of high school, with more supports, and likely less freedoms. Perhaps this is why I truly struggled with the idea that students would be kept in communities for two to three years. While I see the benefit of fostering relationships, I see the disadvantages as I work with middle school students and freshman transitioning into a high school setting. They seem sheltered, they are socially disconnected to many of the people they shared a school with, they are less receptive to change, and they face high school with a feeling that they are lacking support.
I guess my real concern is, if the school is so focused on having all of the staff working together, and having it connect to the community, then it only makes sense to have the students intermingling to the fullest extent to foster relationships with people outside their 'chosen' circles and to bring in the real concept and connections of a school-wide community.
___
Christina L Quach
Bright Futures is a framework for middle schools that focuses on 12 main principles to ensure that students are reaching their true potential socially, academically, and emotionally. This framework is very useful in the middle schools because the students are at an age where they are physically and emotionally changing. This framework respects and understands those changes and helps to set up a safe environment for learning. The 12 core practices focus on improving all members of the school with the focus on the students.
To me the framework seems like common sense. I would like to hope that middle schools would not have to be told to function like the ones represented in Bright Futures, but I know that is not the case. Money might be a problem, but the schools can receive funding for implementing the framework. There was also a small mention of the importance of getting the whole community’s support for implementing the framework within the schools. With or without funding, I think there are a lot of pieces of the core practices that can be implemented without more money. A lot of it is a way of thinking, questioning, communication, and collaboration. Schools should already be doing that because all of those are important in helping students develop emotionally and academically. The framework brings together teachers, principals, students, community members, and parents. Shouldn’t the schools be doing that already whether or not they are following the framework? I think this framework should be a part of all schools with or without the title.
Johnny Buys
In 2009 the Report of the Maine Commission on Middle Level Education “Bright Futures: A Framework of Twelve Core Practices for Maine Middle Grade Schools Developing Full Academic, Personal and Social Potential for Maine Young Adolescents” encouraged a pragmatic approach to education infused with developing twenty-first century technology skills through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. The twelve core practices were broken into two categories: Learning and Teaching Practices in Maine’s Middle Level Schools and School Practices to Support in Maine’s Middle Level Schools.
The initial difficulty of this commission and report was the definition of Middle Level Schools. Age ranges that included 5-8, 6-8, and 7-8 all exist as “middle level schools” within Maine. The commission was uncensored in favoring the “middle school” approach as opposed to the “junior high” model. The pragmatic inclination of the middle school model focusing on personal learning communities and relevant technology literacy dominates the report.
Interestingly, the twelve core practices are introduced in four processes. These include a rational explaining the reasoning and meaning of the core practice, the essential elements detailing what features are needed, a snapshot which provides an example of the core practice in school, and the phase out which defines which practices middle level schools should get rid of in order to better meet the core practice.
While it is easy for me to accept the practices validity as a state commission and even be receptive to them as they are undoubtedly the bias of my University training, the combination of this commission report and my studying of education philosophies leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As a class, we have a variety of philosophical perspectives. I believe that every educational philosophy holds the opportunity to benefit some. Teachers have the right to exercise their right as a professional in correlation with their developed experience and belief. While I am pleased to accept the commission’s guiding principles, I have a problem with the commission’s seeming pragmatist slant that abandons the freedoms of schools and professionals to exercise their individual freedoms. While the commission is so anxious to propose respect for individual interest, responsibility, creativity and innovation, the commission is also very anxious put teachers and schools into specific philosophical leanings undermining exactly what they intend to promote.
Cheyenne
Bright Futures is a framework that contains twelve core practices. This framework is used in the middle grades throughout Maine and is used to promote full student growth potential not only academically, but on personal and social levels as well. I think the creation and implementation of this will completely redesign the classroom setting and engage learners beyond the “student aspect”. This positive type learning will engage all students in learning more than just fundamentals or “core knowledge”. This framework strengthens a teacher’s ability in embracing the differences among all students in the class, which I really like. This article stressed that it is key for all staff members, including teachers, administrators, etc. to be educated and trained in dealing with this age group since it is such a critically unique point in one’s life. I also feel that this is an important issue that needs to be stressed because middle school is a very unique time in a person’s life where they may first start feeling overwhelmed. In middle school you aren’t really a child anymore and you start taking on more responsibilities like a heavier homework load, more chores, and sports/extracurricular activities, yet you aren’t seen as “almost an adult”. Middle school is also the place where you sort of discover who you are, you are enter puberty and all that goes with it, you get into a specific circle of friends, and there is now an emphasis on what is cool and what isn’t, not to mention the heavy influence the media has on all of this.
With all of this being said,, I understand that this may seem overwhelming and appear to be a lot of work, but I still strongly agree with the promotion of this framework and what it is trying to accomplish. I think that sometimes core knowledge can be too heavily focused on leading students to not necessarily be prepared for the next grade level and eventually life on their own. Bright Futures does a great job by laying out two main goals, that organizational supports come together to promote this reform and finding funds to implement these changes. I think this is a very important movement that will prepare America’s future, period. We will create a future of people who are prepared for whatever society throws at them.
Mel Christensen
The “Bright Futures” document focuses on many ways that middle schools can alter practices to become stronger learning communities. One of the biggest goals in this middle school model is to ensure that students are connected to teacher, peers, and parents through their education and have strong relationships with all of these people based in education. Beyond the curriculum, students should be able to experience a variety of athletic, artistic, and social activities without exclusion or judgement. These extracurriculars give students insight into their interests and talents and allow them to start exploring career options. Service learning and project-based learning also allow students to expand the traditional curriculum and explore career options and understand their communities in new ways. All of these aspects of this middle school model foster the creation of “bright futures” for students transitioning into high school.
As a teacher, working in small teams with teacher from other disciplines is an exciting idea. This kind of collaboration enables project based and service learning to be planned and executed more easily. Students will be able to connect learning across classes and teachers can easily collaborate on ways to support students who may be struggling or need additional challenges. Professional development is very important to this model because it inspires new ideas and creativity to the faculty. Within an active and adaptable community it is important that all participants are bringing new energy and ideas to the table and are prepared to try new things to keep students engaged.
Kalib Moore
I felt that Bright Futures really emphasized progressing further into the 21st century. Expanding our knowledge on how to use technology and continually looking to include it in classrooms was a big part of Bright Futures core. I also noticed that it is putting teacher-centered and tradition teaching in the backseat for student-centered work. The 12 core practices create the framework of Bright Futures and creating strong social skills for middle level students is important. I felt that the snapshot examples of the practices in action were really useful in understanding how it will look in the classroom.
One of the most obvious problems I see with the framework working state-wide in middle schools is that it is going to be difficult to fund everything necessary to provide this to all students. The technology alone necessary to create these examples in Bright Futures would be hard to come by for all schools. Overall I saw a lot more positive in the framework than I saw negative. This field is always changing and progressing forward, so it is better to continue to work towards improvement than do nothing at all.